-
I took my son to see the Han Solo Star Wars movie at our local second run theater. (Although I prefer to go on 2-for-1 Tuesdays, it was still a bargain to pay a mere $4 apiece for our tickets.) We didn’t buy any snacks, but we did stop on the way home to pick up a 50%-off pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream as an evening treat. $10.50 well spent.
-
I continue to declutter and downsize our excess stuff. We’re neither hoarders nor minimalists, and I’ve got a bee in my bonnet to rid our home once and for all from the burden of containing too many things. Of course, there are other people who live here, so there’s only so much under my control.
My motivation is that an item of mass replaces the space where fresh air could have circulated. More things = less air to breathe.
-
I went to a couple different Goodwills in search of treasures to photograph, (and to bribe other shoppers into sharing their stories with me for my Instagram.) I didn’t end up buying anything for myself, although my son bought a new-in-package set of underwear and a best of Deep Purple album.
My favorite recent Goodwill find was a new-in-package toilet seat, as ours had split in an unfixable manner. It’s been 11-1/2 years since I made a decision to stop buying new consumer goods, and I’m constantly amazed with what I’m able to find used!
-
I finished one library book and started another, I walked most of my errands yesterday, I arranged to participate in a consumer opinion panel that will pay $125 for a two-hour commitment, I renewed my Facebook Marketplace listings, I made a phone appointment for my son and I to talk to someone at his university about reversing the charges for the summer class he accidentally signed up for, (he thought it was a fall class) and I put a book on hold through the interlibrary loan program.
-
I didn’t buy a Lear Jet or a вульгарная позолоченная квартира в небе.
{ 62 comments… read them below or add one }
1. I knitted Christmas gifts using what I had on hand, using up all the cotton yarn I’ve had sitting around for a while (I’ve come to the realization that these things do no one any good if I’m not using them, so I’m using it all up!). I now have enough dishcloths for possibly several Christmases.
2. We stayed out of the restaurants and ate what I cooked at home. Healthy and frugal!
3. Hung my laundry out to dry and kept the AC off. Fresh air is so lovely!
4. I read a bunch of library books, some of which came via interlibrary loan, and my husband and I watched a movie I had checked out from the library. Libraries are seriously the best.
5. I didn’t pay for an orange spray tan or hair plugs that resemble a roadkill possum. Go me!
My sister is visiting from Oklahoma for the week.
1. We went thru my closet there is nothing I need for the upcoming fall cruise or probably the rest of my life other than undies.
2. Received an unexpected check for $175 for my brief volunteer assignment
3. We splurged $30 each for a 2 hr. cooking class at Williams Sonoma. Great class and bonding experience
4. Used $15 coupon to buy new bottle of foundation (last bottle I bought lasted a year)
5. Attending free concert in park tonight and packing snacks and bottle water
I’m so envious, I miss my sister who lives 3000 miles away!
I live in so cal and my sister lives in Oklahoma so about 1200 miles. I hadn’t seen here since November
I’m actually envious of having a sister. 2 brothers was in the cards for me. But all my kids have a sister, so I’m happy for them.
1. Friends are in town for a while and I loaned them my car so they wouldn’t have to rent a car for two weeks. Sure, that saves them money rather than me, but it’s overall better for everyone and the environment. Plus, they’re providing my family with some dinners in gratitude so I do end up saving also! Win-Win.
2. Without my car, I’ve been borrowing my parents’ vehicle, which is big enough to take my kid and my friends’ kids to summer camp together every day. Carpooling, car sharing means that even when we do have more people to transport we really can do with only one car at my house/insurance/registration.
3. My garden is never as productive as I want it to be (I live in a fierce climate) but we are eating a bit of stuff from the garden. Maybe some year I’ll feel like I actually saved money but until then I enjoy garden produce and the stress-reduction of digging in the dirt.
4. Opened a new account within the online banking service where I keep my emergency savings, to go from a 1% interest to 1.75% rate — same bank but an account with a different name, so I gained .75% interest!
5. My friend who is in town keeps (gently) making fun of how old my phone is—it can’t decipher most of the emojis she likes to send. Sure, my iphone 4 is 6 years old but it does what it needs to do (which admittedly isn’t much – I don’t do a lot of apps other than listening to my library audiobooks and text my family). And why buy a new phone when this one works! (Knock on wood that I can get a few more years out of it!).
I have had luck naming my old things. My family used to call the car my son is inheriting “the clown car” because it was so small. So I renamed it “Luigi,” and when they’d say something, I’d act as though they’d hurt Luigi’s feeling. Now, they no longer say anything against the car in my (or more importantly, my son’s) hearing. I don’t want him to feel the car he is receiving as a gift needs to be replaced!
Having one car is such a huge savings on gas, repairs, upkeep and insurance. We’ve been making it work for about 10 years now. Admittedly, in our working years we worked at the same place, same hours. Even now in retirement we “make it do.”
1. had a talk with my daughter about spending less money. She was stressed about buying school clothes/supplies for grandson. I reminded her that he got a bunch of new clothes for his birthday at the end of June. Aside from new shoes and probably some underwear, he was set for clothes.
2. Ate left overs for lunch
3. worked on crocheting a basket made of t-shirt yarn made from some t-shirts I will someday (hopefully) make into a quilt
4. walked around Hobby Lobby and Jo-ann’s and only bought what I needed (interfacing for t-shirt quilt)
5. bought a fabric shaver and cleaned a lot of pilling off my 2 favorite tank tops so they look brand new.
1. For groceries, bought only milk over the last 10 days. We have moose and salmon in the freezer and the garden is producing like crazy, so we have resisted the temptation to go by McDonalds for a fish fillet (I know, I know. But I love them so…). Once I was even in line for the drive through and managed to come to my senses before anyone came up behind me, so I backed out and went home.
2. The dogs and hedgehog have been eating excess cucumbers. I overdid it, planting 16 cuke vines for a two person household. I can pickles and we eat and we give to friends, but I still had some left so tried feeding it to the hedgehog and he now gobbles down one a day. The dogs eat three or four a day, chopped into their kibble. Saving on animal feed and not wasting vegetables.
3. Needed two household items. Instead of buying them, I sent emails to a few friends and ended up getting them for free. Gave the giver four zucchini boats and a dozen cucumbers as a thanks.
4. A chocolate loving friend had a birthday. As her gift, I made her the King Arthur double chocolate zucchini bread that is really a cake in disguise. Used up zucchini and she loved it. I have done this twice now and each time the recipe (from their website) came out perfect and got rave reviews. VERY chocolaty.
5. Had a mini garage sale, for four hours on Saturday morning. Made $244 and got rid of clutter and, really, it only took me about an hour to set up and price and the husband put the remains in boxes and took them to Salvation Army while I wiped down and put away the tables–so not much labor.
Frugal Fail: I was told I will need another surgery for a chronic health issue. Number 15 in five years and each time it takes me longer to recover and I spend more time in a wheelchair. I went straight from the doctor’s and spent the rest of the day totally wallowing in self-pity and went to the bookstore and bought three new hardbacks. Only $2.99 out of pocket, as I had gift cards that have been hanging around for over a year. I know I could have put the money to better use but I just didn’t feel like it.
My thoughts and prayers for your upcoming surgery. I can appreciate every time being harder to recover. Some days will be better than other and we have to learn to appreciate the good days.
I don’t think you should count this as a frugal fail. I would have gone for some sort of food solace that would have cost WAY more than $2.99 and the only thing I would have had to show for it would be something “forever on the hips”. At least this way you have hours of entertainment and the hardbacks can be shared on to someone else when you are done with them.
I say if 3 books help you face a surgery, then bring them on! A very paltry investment if they contribute to dealing with a monumentally unpleasant experience…
Very sorry for your upcoming surgery. I believe our resilience gets worn down when we have to face things continuously. Buying those books was an act of self-care, not a frugal fail!
Lindsey, $3 in the face of hard news doesn’t sound like an indulgence at all! I’m sorry for your news, and wish you the very best possible outcome including a speedy recovery.
Thinking of you, Lindsey. I’m having a run of rather bad health luck myself right now (details whenever I have time to post a separate FFT comment), but yours outweighs mine considerably. All the best to all of us, around the world.
You crack me up!
Now that I’ve finished car repairs hopefully frugality will return.
1. I made a batch of garlic bread from scratch (bread and garlic butter). Unfortunately I had a cold and couldn’t smell the garlic properly so it ended up extremely garlicky! I thought there was something wrong with the garlic but it was just me, haha. It was still delicious and I have some in the freezer for future meals.
2. My husband and I prepared a bunch of soups for the freezer for lunches. It was fun to spend an afternoon cooking with him and listening to Bon Jovi classics.
3. Now I’m settling into my new job I am working my new budget and we are making extra mortgage payments and saving extra into our retirement funds.
4. We did our tax over the weekend and we are both getting refunds, unlike last year. It’s all going to pay for a new fence. So boring it is.
5. My sister gave me a new dress she found at a thrift shop.
1. Reading through stacks of library books including several cookbooks, mainly Greek and Italian. Trying to find new ways to work extra fruits & veg into our meals.
2. Had my regular dental cleaning. Accepted the ‘free’ toothbrush/toothpaste/floss & carry case. The cases are great for traveling.
3. Opening the windows in the mornings and at night. We wait until it hits 81 or 82 in the house before we turn on the AC. Generally we have very low humidity (~12-15%), so we can go a hotter than people in other parts of the country.
4. Potting and re-potting houseplants. I like glazed pots, but I’m switching them up so I don’t have to buy any new ones.
5. We got a surprise rainstorm last week so I was able to turn off the sprinklers. Then I forgot to turn the system back on. Ended up watering the veg beds “just enough” with the hose, and the trees with water from my rain barrels.
I’m waffling about whether to have a yard sale or just donate everything. It’s a lot of this-and-that. Nothing high-end, and no large pieces of furniture to make people stop for a look. Anyone have ideas for when it’s best to yard sale vs. donate?
An important consideration would be the amount of time and energy you have available to commit to a sale. With primarily small items, a longer sale (like 3 days) would accumulate more revenue, while sales with bigger ticket items could be lucrative in a half or one day sale. I have had good luck with a 3 day format for sales of primarily small items and just a few large ones.
1) I balanced the checkbook, worked on my budget and updated my spreadsheets today. I have a small stack of household business that needs my attention. January and July are always hard months financially for us. So I watch things closely and hold the purse strings tightly. I am experiment,y with an every dollar type of budget.
2) The farm basket that I have delivered every other week has been bountiful. I have planned all our meals around its contents. We are eating so many veggies! The I made vegatable fajitas which were quite tasty and used up the zucchini. I also pulled some cooked garbanzo beans out of the freezer to make hummus. When coupled with fresh vegatables, It is one of my favorite low-cost meals/snacks.
3). YouTube offers a variety of entertainment. I watched a short video today online regarding the Nightfall Project. The producer has many concerns about food waste and had suggestions on how to act locally. It is estimated that 40% of the food produced is net eaten;, yet 1 in 6 people are food insecure. Widespread systematic waste makes frugal me crazy.
4) I saved a beautiful piece of old iron work from the landfill this week. I dragged it home and hung it on the wall of the entry porch.
5) I listed a few items on a Facebook Marketplace, sold an item on Craigslist for my son, added to my eBay listings, and brought some clothes to the thrift store. Of course, I did all things that I usually do- drank primarily water, brewed my own coffee, and ate nearly all my meals at home. I enjoyed low-cost/no cost entertainment thanks to our local library, YMCA, and state beaches.
Cold night and day in Aussie southern states and consuming lots of firewood and power to keep warm. I dress for the weather and have sealed all the drafts but some days it’s bitter especially below zero frosts.
1. I have some bubble wrap stashed from packages and will apply it today to some of the bedrooms windows, apparently works like double glazing whilst still allowing light in … worth a try to keep warm overnight.
2.My dog walks are combined with picking up pine cones and small pieces of wood for the stove, lots of this around after storms recently.
3. Citrus season here and I have been given lots of lemons, grapefruit and oranges , so the marmalade is boiling in the pan ready to go into jars.
4. The garden jungle of kale, rocket and parsley is making me discover new recipes to try and also share with others
5. I am feeding a neighbors chooks for 4 weeks and get to keep the eggs, so lots of kale and cheese pies, omelette and pavlova on the menu!!
We are burning through the redgum right now as well! It’s so so cold. I’m sure our American friends would laugh at our idea of the cold but I really cannot stand it. I’m a Summer girl through and through
I am dumb about weather. I thought oranges required a warm climate and produced during the heat. You mentioned being cold, but that it was citrus season. I love learning about different areas of the world. So your oranges produce in the cold? That is different than Florida oranges.
I’m a southern California girl. Our oranges produce in the winter, and are sweeter when the weather gets cold BUT if the weather freezes the orange freezes and is lost as a commercial crop. I know Florida sometimes freezes, and that’s bad for the oranges there. That may be what you’re thinking about.
Oh ok…that makes sense. I guess that is why in the olden days, oranges were available and such a treat at Christmas. My grandmother used to talk about getting oranges in her stocking at Christmas.
My grandma (one of 16 kids, born in 1915) always got a tangerine in her stocking as a kid and it was a BIG treat. We’ve continued the tradition and always put a tangerine in the toe of Christmas stockings!
Florida citrus is ripens and is best during the winter months. Oranges, tangerines and grapefruit are usually sweeter after the first cold spell, but citrus can be damaged during a hard freeze. The trees normally blossom in March and April. However, there are very few large orange groves remaining.
That is supposed to say, “Florida citrus ripens. ” .
Oooh I love the consumer panel bit! That’s not a shabby hourly wage at all. 🙂 This week:
1. We bought dinner at Jason’s Deli using cash from a Craigslist deal I made today. Woop woop! We like to stuff our to-go salad containers to the brim. Hubs and I weighed our plates to see who got more stuff in their container. Hubs won! 🙂
2. Instead of going to the salon, I bought a $5 pack of acrylic nails. I watched nail videos on YouTube to see how to make the nails last longer than a week. Now I have nice nails and no one’s the wiser.
3. I harvested more okra from the garden, which Mr. Picky Pincher will pickle
4. I realized I forgot to buy sandwich buns at the store, so I made my own. 🙂 I saved $1.50, which ain’t too shabby.
5. I wrapped a birthday gift using secondhand wrapping materials.
We have a small(ish) home (1350sf for the three of us plus a roommate) in large part because it forces us to declutter regularly due to lack of storage space. Annoying sometimes, but worth it for never being totally overrun with stuff.
Nice that Ben & Jerry’s is still a pint. Haagen Das is 13 oz.
Good point!
I now have FOUR interviews on my website. I am perpetually interested in and respectful of how people use frugal skills to pursue their goals and live rich lives. Just posted today the interview with Lee Lee McKnight who has a magazine (!) to empower other women – because the first part of her life was dis-empowered. https://marybethdanielson.com/content/learning-live-authentically-interview-lee-lee-mcknight
Maybe I love this since it’s been my story, too. Education, experiences, relationships – and second hand-stuff.
1. I MADE dog biscuits for my grand-dogs (son and DIL’s 2 pups) out of bread heels (from the freezer), a terrible beefy lima soup (sounded like a good idea when I made it), some Cuisinart-ed fresh stuff (kale!), eggs, and no dairy or sugar – all baked and dehydrated into 100 misshapen treats. The dogs don’t even care that they aren’t clever shapes.
2. So Many Times I have not bought treats, drinks, ice cream cones, or donuts fresh from the bakery I drive past when I go to see friends.
3. Tried several of the apps in which one records purchases in order to try to keep up with where the $ goes. I don’t know why it took me years and months to realize – but a few weeks ago I started an excel spread sheet for our purchases. Every few days I enter what we’ve bought, each receipt into its own category. Now I can flip to the sum halfway through the month to see how I’m doing. This is so simple – why did it take me this long?
4. Used the acrylic “feather” furniture duster to clean the dashboard and interior of our car. I was going on a short trip with a GF – she would never have noticed what the car looked like, but it’s the thought, right? The tidy, dust-less dashboard impressed ME. No $ for a detailed car cleaning.
5. I promised myself I would do (at least) two political acts each week – because being personally frugal isn’t enough of a response to a tsunami of oligarchs.
*Love* your no. 5! Prevention of complete collapse of one’s democracy *has* to be more cost-effective in the long run, right?
1. Instead of buying a graduation card, I took off the front of a super cute homemade one someone sent and glued it onto a new white paper. This makes it where I’m reusing the front but keeping the personal note for myself.
2. I started reading a book to my kids that I got free from my readers rewards.
3. We had some free family fun/exercise by going on a walk, it ended up raining on us and we ran/walked home, but it was so much fun and I have a feeling this’ll be a walk we talk about for a long time to come!
4. I borrowed my mom’s mini sewing machine and sewed up a rip in one of my son’s nice dress shirts, it was in the seem, so easy enough for a novice sewer like me to do.
5. Instead of buying a microscope for my daughter’s science this year, I posted on fb asking for one to borrow or buy. A lady had one sitting around that had been her grandson’s years ago. I’m not sure if it’s the right kind and strong enough, we’ll see, but she gave it to me free, I just bought some batteries for it.
1. 2 day conference for work, free for me, breakfast and lunch are included woo hoo!
2. Still using my iphone 5s, sometimes the battery is short but I only use it for phone calls and music for my walking play list.
3. Still eating down my freezer, cooking what I have and only supplementing from the produce market and minimal grocery shopping.
4. Except: wine. So I found a 20 percent off sale and stocked up. Sorry.
5. Making air popped popcorn in my microwave using a silicone bowl with a lid that was gifted to me.
Fail: I read that I should prune my tomato plants. Well, now they are not producing at all. Better luck next year I guess. Boo.
Katy, I have to say you look really slender in that photo. Whatever you are doing, looks good on you girlfriend!
I’ve never pruned my tomato bushes and have had good crops – except for last year, which was a bad year for everyone around here apparently.
Being irate with the daily news cycle.
And how!!
Just want to say that I typed a nice reply to Bee but it wouldn’t post. Long story short, we love garbanzo beans, too.
1. Yesterday was rainy and I was home much of the day. I finally tackled a stack of EOBs and submitted them for flexible spending account reimbursement. We should get almost $800 from that task. I also submitted to insurance for a couple of “we don’t accept insurance” doctor’s bills.
2. I walked to the grocery store, with an umbrella, to buy bananas. They had wax paper on clearance, $.32/roll. I am on my last roll so I bought a couple. I used my debit card and requested cash back. Our credit union has very few fee free ATMs since they dropped one of the networks they’re affiliated with.
3. All meals at home this past week. We did pick up a Peruvian chicken the other day but used our own sides with it.
4. I picked up a big nail (potential tire puncturer) on my way to yoga. When I went to throw it away at the studio the two people that saw what I was doing commented that they to pick up such items. One of them is a runner/biker and the other a big hiker. It was fun to know that others are so considerate. Usually I’d take a nail home with me (and put it in a metal recycling bin to give to a friend) but I didn’t have any place to store it.
5. I drove a little out of the way to fill my my car with gas. I saved about $40/gallon, between price differences and Safeway savings.
yay for #1! Keeping up on my receipts keeps that tax-free money rolling back to me.
I enjoy making some of my own summer tops, and summer dresses. For the trim, I hit the remenants. With any luck, I can find enough to do two tops. Or enough to make another purse, with a free pattern I found online. A cousin told me she gets her quilt material the same way.
1. I took my daughter to the cheap theater to see Mamma Mia. We bought a drink and snacks but it was still only 13.75.
2. I took a seven layer salad to dinner at my Mom’s house last night. I had all the ingredients already except celery. I used up some produce that needed to go and I now have enough leftovers for a few lunches.
3. I’m trying to stretch my pool chemicals. I’m running a little under the recommended levels for bromine and waiting an extra day each week to add the additional chemicals. I also found a cheaper source for the chemicals themselves. They also deliver for free instead of having to drive across town.
4. I’m keep my thermostat at 78 and utilizing fans to stay cool.
5. I’m still using my cheap tracfone even though everyone keeps telling me I need a better phone. It works and it saves me a lot of money each month which adds up.
Frugal Fail – the fan I refurbished fell over during the night and the fan blades shattered so I’ll be shopping for a new fan for my daughter to take to school this fall.
I’m taking my kids tomorrow to see the Secret Life of Pets for a dollar each. They’ll love it!!!
I heard on one of the morning shows that according to an article in Forbe’s Magazine, libraries are a wast of tax money, since Amazon does everything libraries do and more. I do use free e-books from Amazon but I get a lot more from my library and I am delighted my tax dollars support it.
That is propaganda!
My son goes to Lego building events, I go to seminars, I go to a foreign film club which meets once a month and shows wonderful obscure, vetted films. All this for free from my local library. Take that amazon!
I believe it is too. Libraries offer so much more than free reads to the communities they serve.
That Forbe’s article has just been blasted from all sides. They had to take it down so many people complained about it. I am a librarian, with many librarian friends and my Facebook feed is full of library responses proving how much money library’s save people. I would go broke if I bought all the books I read from the library. Not to mention all of the people who take classes, study, go to story time, etc.
Libraries are community spaces. Whatever idiot wrote that should read Robert Putnam.
Ouch on the summer class! My ds did sign up for a summer class and then decided against it and dropped it. I triple checked his account to make sure we were not going to be charged, I was so paranoid. I hope you got it figured out.
1. Our very exciting FFT is that we won the Hamilton Lottery for $10 orchestra seats and we had so much fun! Parking was $10. $30 to see a Broadway play is amazing.
2. Sold 3 more leotards. Slowly getting rid of them and making a bit of money in the process. Speaking of leotards. GK had a $5 grab bag sale. I ordered 10 leotards to get the free shipping. $53 after tax for 10 leotards = cheaper than just 1 leotard new. I will keep the best 2 for my dds Christmas and sell the rest at a profit on ebay.
3. Eating a homemade cinnamon roll for breakfast. Dh made grits for dinner last night when I was working (so cheap). I made a batch of zucchini muffins for snacking yesterday from a $1 zucchini. I got 2 stirfry lunches + the muffins. Yum.
4. Have to take my dd to the specialist today for back pain. We had x-rays done with a different Dr so I requested a copy to take with us for this appt. No need to radiate her more nor pay for another set.
5. Dd grew out of her team jacket and her size is hard to come by second hand at the gym. The day before I was going to have to buy a new one full price a teammate quit (sad) and sold us her old jacket for $20 (very happy, 1/3 the price of new).
We have to petition to have the fees removed, which will then be reviewed by some committee on August 14th.
Sigh . . .
1. have been gifted zukes and cukes from various people in the past week. 2 of my favorite things!
2. spent a partially rainy day with my sister on sunday. she lives 90mins from me on the NH coast. i had some stuff from our moms’ funeral to give her (cards we received, a giant plant arrangement that needed my sister knowledgeable care since i was having a difficult time with it. turns out, the plants planted together needed different amounts of watering/sunlight..so, i guess i’m not that inept!) we had pizza for lunch (my treat) and since it had stopped raining, we walked the beach for over an hour. well worth the gas to get there. I also gave her my old canning kettle and some almost brand new bale type jars – she uses those for pickles. i can’t use the kettle with my new stove.
3. spread 7 bags of mulch and 5 bags of drainage rocks around my house saturday. hung a few loads of laundry and did some indoor cleaning too. had small meals and still managed to gain 2.4 pounds in 24 hours. how does that happen?
4. realized while i was washing my curtains over the weekend that all of my curtains are either over 10 years old, were made from something else or were moved from one room to another. (my downstairs bathroom valance used to be my valance over the kitchen sink – you would never know it was in the kitchen). my upstairs bathroom curtains were originally a fabric shower curtain. when i had to redo my bathroom a few years ago from the ice dams, i put in a shower door. i made the shower curtain into a nice set of bathroom curtains.my DR and LR curtains are white crinkly sheers that i bought for $5 a window (9 windows in all). I wash them a couple times a year in DT oxi and they look brand new.
5. have had a lot of meetings lately so i have only brought lunch to work 3x in the past 2 weeks.
Combo of Katy’s logo and FFT.
1.Use it up. I added water to my shampoo to extend it. Cleaned hair as well as straight shampoo.
2.Wear it out. Lately on FB I have been seeing people having home demo parties for “cleaning with cloths”. Really??? I was even invited to one which I politely declined. I use up our hopelessly-too-worn-out -for consignment or donating clothes into cleaning rags.
3.Make it do. In spite of 3 funerals in the past few months, no clothes or shoes were purchased for these occasions. I believe a funeral is a somber and formal occasion but used what I had on hand by putting together outfits with my clothes and shoes on hand.
4. Or do without. Tuna salad and egg salad for main dishes instead of grocery shopping this weekend.
5.No purchases today…gave DH a haircut, prepping for a picnic and returning library books.
1) I had to replace two tires yesterday, due to needing my front end aligned. They gave me a card for 10% off if I used a specific shop in town. I happily made an appointment to get that done today and get the savings.
2) I’m having lunch out with friends today. Hopefully the restaurant has a good lunch special – they usually do. I’m doing well not eating lunches out.
3) I ordered a cute nursing cover for friend, whose baby is due this September. It was less than $15 and they sent me a free e-book, which I printed out for her and plan to include in the gift bag.
4) Big Lots sent me a coupon I plan to use after payday, when I buy household staple items.
5) I didn’t buy a Lear jet or anything else gold-plated!
This week was a series of awesome frugal fails as my family had the first extended non-holiday visit with my dad since my mom died and we did/ate pretty much whatever we wanted and had a great time. Of course, some of the best fun was also frugal – playing games at home, making a few special meals – but we also blew what feels to me like a ton of money on several dinners out for the whole family, museum admissions, treats, nice wine… no regrets.
Your spending doesn’t fit what I would consider to be “frugal fails”. Sometimes situations call for non-frugality and I might suggest that this is one of them. Your family is recovering from a major loss and a celebration is appropriate with coming together for the first time since that loss. I’ll bet that your Mom would be pleased. Frugality’s gift is that it can offer choices on where you spend your resources. What better way to spend than on your family members during the healing process?
DIY painting our living room, family room, and hallway. Saving $350 by doing it ourselves. Our quote was a good one, but still plenty more expensive than DIY.
Began using Facebook Marketplace. Sold a rug, a pool pump we didn’t need, a picture, and a desk. $133 into my bank.
Sold an item on Ebay that I’ve had on there for an eternity. $7.99 added to the bank.
Teaching my daughters to scramble eggs. They love this! Frugal healthy foods to boot!
Husband is out of town this week and next, which is sad, but saving us gas money on his normal commute, racking us up some airline miles, and the rest of us are satisfied with some frugal meals, he would eat, but be bummed about.
1. Spent a long weekend at my oldest daughter’s in Baltimore. We stayed with her so that we didn’t have to spend $ on a hotel.
2. Hubby and I cooked all meals at her apartment. We took her grocery shopping at Aldi’s to keep the costs down. Made leftovers so that she has food for the week.
3. Hubby, OD and her boyfriend went to an Orioles game. They walked the 6 blocks to avoid paying parking and ate before they went to the game. Only got a round of beers.
4. We visited 1 college for our youngest while we were in Maryland and one on the way home in NJ.
5. We went to a used bookstore (I bought nothing), played games and cards and just spent time inside since it was raining most of the weekend.
Katy, all that walking to do errands and the “Beans and Rice Tuition Paying Diet” have you looking great.
My FFT:
1. Cobbled together four days of work lunches from stuff lingering in the freezer that got turned into an Italian-style casserole with lots of veggies. It was delicious.
2. The Mister bought some shirts on extreme clearance ($8 each for Columbia fishing shirts) that were perfect except that he wanted the collars to be button-down so they wouldn’t flop. I got out my box of scavenged/donated buttons and made it so. He works in tech and finds the many pockets in fishing shirts to be great for carrying a lot of gear.
3. Cold-brewed two quarts of tea in the fridge so that turning the stove on was not necessary.
4. Discovered a 5-lb. bag of our cats’ food from Chewy costs the same as a 3-lb. bag in the local grocery store. Our cats are big, so a 5-lb. bag will not go stale on them. Two pounds “free”? Yes, please.
5. Got a 30 percent off coupon from an online shoe store at a time when no one in the house needed shoes, but I needed a new pair or two of the rather expensive insoles prescribed for my painful feet. The online seller carries the insoles – WOW!, so the coupon really cut down on the price.